markets around the world are up today, a sign of confidence that a fiscal cliff deal just might be in the works. we'll see. another positive sign for the economy, the broadest picture we can get of the economy's health, gdp, came in quite a bit better than expected in the third quarter. alison kosik at the new york stock exchange to explain. hi. >> reporter: hey, carol. so between july and september, the economy grew at a 2.7% rate. so that came in much better than second quarter's rate, which was 1.3%. and there's definitely good stuff here. you look deeper in the report, you find out the u.s. exported more than first thought. that's good. because we really need people in other countries to buy our stuff. that helps our economy. home building and strong corporate profits, that also helped our economy. but here's the thing. when you dig deeper in the report, past that headline number of 2.7%, you know, it's not all it's cracked up to be. businesses built up bigger inventories of their products last quarter. that helps the economy now, but the thing is, it means next quarter these busi